Tuesday, September 1, 2009

This morning I have an interview with a vice Principal at a school I went to yesterday. The office lady asked if I wanted a late morning time slot which sounded great - apparently late to her is 9:30. Being currently unemployed 9:30 is early!! I'm sitting here trying to stay awake.

My ideas for my interview - Don't wear jeans... mentally searching cupboard for something other than jeans that don't have to be ironed.

I have a teaching portfolio, but it's a mess (note to self work on this). I'm preparing myself for the usual questions 1. what would you do with a difficult student 2. how would you prepare for a day 3. what if the teacher didn't leave any work.

The answer is simple - if I set the expectation e.g. behaviour by setting some rules for the day. Make the day different from their usual teacher. Give the students some rewards e.g. games, lots of games.

When I was teaching I created a casual teacher folder. It was full of simple activities, colouring in etc. All I hoped for was that the casual would return to my classroom and end the day happy without my kids killing each other. This folder worked really well - my kids were happy for the break.

Monday, August 31, 2009

So today was the day to get out there and visit the schools in my local area. I find this to be scary for a number of reasons. The main being trying to find the admin block - Today I found myself walking through playgrounds of children searching for the office.

One office lady told me that my approval to teach had expired in October 2006. Then proceeded to give me a lecture about how these forms need to be continually updated - I thought this was strange. I looked at my letter and it said effective from not expired.

Well I've been a teacher for a few years now. I've taught casually and fulltime in Australia. Recently I've travelled overseas and I've returned to an area where getting a fulltime position in a public school is almost minimal. So I'm setting out to record my efforts as a casual teacher on the East Coast of Australia.